Car Seats when Traveling

A little advice on something I found out the hard way.




The first time we flew with baby, I booked a car seat with the car rental company. When we arrived in Miami and took the shuttle to the car rental place, they had no record of us ordering a car seat and the seat they ended up giving us was out-of-date and precarious – almost broken and unusable. The car rental companies also charge way too much for baby seats. I sat in the back seat with my son the entire vacation because I was so uncomfortable with that crappy baby seat.



We learned from that experience to check our car seats with our checked luggage. It’s also a good idea to bring an umbrella stroller. The baby can stay in the umbrella stroller until you are on the bridge, boarding the plane. The gate agent will give you a tag for your stroller and it will be waiting for you on the bridge when you de-board the plane at your destination.



That said, one time our two umbrella strollers ended up in Dallas instead of Chicago, so we had to wrangle squirming babies until the car seats came out at baggage claim, then load the babies in the car seats on a luggage cart to bring to our car. It was better than dragging the car seats through the airport!



I guess the bottom line is prepare as best you can, but understand that anything can happen when you travel, with or without kids.